Friday, March 11, 2011

My View

Random thoughts from your resident curmudgeon...

Since the U.S. economy collapsed in 2008, the Federal Reserve has triple the money supply in this country in an effort to revive the economy. This means that more than $20 TRILLION new dollars have been created by our central bank. Why hasn't all this new money jump started the economy? One of the main reasons is that it sits on the books of the majority of the banks in this country, who have tightened lending standards and are reluctant to lend. Regardless of where this money is in the system, the fact that it has been created at these levels is highly inflationary. The worry is that the U.S. has severely debased its currency by creating so much of it. Don't believe me? Let's take a look at what the commodity markets tell us about the weaker dollar. According to the Financial Times of London, here are the annual price increases for various commodities in 2010: heating oil +41%; corn +91%; wheat +79%; cotton +143%. The list goes on and is extensive, showing increases in commodity prices in nearly all areas. This is the practical impact of our screwed up fiscal policy in this country: we are going to be paying higher prices for everyday staples because we have cheapened the value of our dollar so severely. Think about this fact the next time you hear a politician say we must go deeper into debt (print more dollars) for more government spending.

A psychiatrist is a fellow who asks you a lot of expensive questions that your wife will ask you for nothing.

One of the favorable conditions that the U.S. enjoys at the moment is very low borrowing costs. In 2010, the average interest rate on all the U.S. debt was 1.3%. This low rate environment has allowed our leaders to print more money and issue more debt without destroying our budget with a high level of interest payments. That is going to change. In 2010, the U.S. paid $185 billion in interest on our debt. That is projected to increase to $554 billion by 2015. The tripling of our interest payments means one of three things will happen: we will have to severely cut services; taxes will go up substantially; or some combination of these two choices. Our fiscal imprudence will become even more painfully obvious as the interest rate environment changes and rates rise. Know that our leaders in Washington are going to be looking closely at your wallet to bail them out of these mistakes.

I know that there are some who do not love their fellow man. I hate people like that.

We often hear the left criticize capitalism for its "inequality" in rewarding those that work hard and take greater risks in building a business getting a larger share of the the profits for their efforts. We have heard the criticism from the likes of Arianna Huffington, Michael Moore, and Al Gore in various forms or fashion. Well, it seems like capitalism is pretty good for those guys. Huffington recently sold her website Huffington Post for $315 million; Moore, the venal filmmaker, is suing his film company for additional receipts beyond the $20 million he was paid for his last film; and profit of doom Gore, who of the global warming falsehood, has made enough money off that scam to purchase his fourth estate, this one on the Mediterranean. Seems like the benefits of capitalism are pretty good for the left, but according to their world view, not so much for you and me. And this is all you need to know about the left and their ideas.